Washington, June 18: The US State Department has announced that the country is considering offers of assistance from 22 countries for the oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico.
The 22 countries that have offered assistance are: Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, Qatar, Norway, Romania, Russia, South Korea and Spain.
Of the 22 offers, so far four have been accepted. These countries are Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands and Norway.
Canada, Mexico, and Norway have offered miles of boom, and the Netherlands has offered skimmers and three sweeping arm systems.
According to Asia News Channel, only one country’s offer of aid was declined outright and that was France, because the US does not approve of the chemicals used in its process.
In a statement on May 5, the US State Department had turned down offers saying “there is no need right now that the US cannot meet.”
America’s first sought help on May 13 when the embassies asked countries and companies if they had ocean booms. The second request went out on June 10 when the US asked if countries had 18-24 inch containment booms or firebooms, ABC News reported.
——–Agencies